New York Rangers

Gone is their vocal leader on defense, along with the energetic forwards who provided career seasons and valued bursts of productivity. The blue line will have members aged 21, 23, 24 and 24 on opening night. Yet, when General Manager Bob Murray was asked whether his Ducks are improved from the team that lost Game 7 of the Western Conference finals to the eventual-champion Chicago Blackhawks, he said ... yes, it is. "This is a better team than it was before," Murray told The Times in an email. The loss of veteran defenseman Francois Beauchemin sapped leadership from the roster, but Murray reacted quickly last week by trading for 34-year-old defenseman Kevin Bieksa. ...

Related "New York Rangers" Articles

Here's our sports bucket lists, not including Chicago venues or events, in no particular order.PLACES TO SEEJoe Louis Arena. It's old, it's run down, it smells of stale beer and it's a terrific place to watch a hockey game. History (and...

Barring an unlikely development, Marcus Kruger will be back with the Blackhawks in 2015-16.The only questions remaining are when a new contract for the restricted free-agent center will be finalized and what the terms will be.According to agent...

As present-day Blackhawks fans lament the departures of Patrick Sharp, Brandon Saad and Johnny Oduya, consider the angst felt by longtime Hawks fans during the summer of 1972.
That was when Bobby Hull took his talents to Winnipeg.
The upstart World...

The makeover of the Blackhawks roster for the 2015-16 season is far from complete, but the picture slowly is becoming a bit more defined as general manager Stan Bowman traverses the swampy landscape that is the NHL salary cap.
During the first day of...

The Chicago Blackhawks maintained some depth at the goaltending position when they agreed to terms on a one-year contract extension with Michael Leighton on Tuesday.
With the trade of Antti Raanta to the New York Rangers on Saturday, the Hawks were in...

Stan Bowman wore a "what, me worry?" look on his face moments after the 2015 NHL draft ended without the Blackhawks general manager having cleared significant space under the league's salary cap.
As he and the 29 other GMs went their separate...

The Chicago Blackhawks' hierarchy didn't leave the 2015 NHL draft without making at least one trade.
Moments after the draft ended on Saturday, the Blackhawks sent goaltender Antti Raanta to the New York Rangers in exchange for minor-league forward...

It's a matter of when, not if, the Blackhawks pull off a significant trade or two to clear space under the league's salary cap.
Though it was anticipated that those deals would occur Friday night during the first round of the NHL draft at BB&T...

The date and opponent for the Blackhawks' 2015-16 regular-season opener was announced Wednesday, revealing exactly how much time general manager Stan Bowman has to retool the roster to conform to the NHL's salary cap.
Between now and Oct. 7 when the...

There promises to be plenty of pomp and circumstance when the Chicago Blackhawks raise their 2015 Stanley Cup championship banner Oct. 7 in their home opener of the 2015-16 season.
The NHL released the dates for the home openers Wednesday and...

When Jahlil Okafor and the rest of college basketball's top prospects are drafted into the NBA this week, their amateur careers will be over.
But many of this year's NHL draft picks are set to attend college after their big night, and the serpentine...

The Blackhawks made plenty of memories during their run to the 2015 Stanley Cup. Here are five favorites:
Blackhawks 5, Canadiens 0; Nov. 4
The Hawks weren't exactly flying high when they arrived in Montreal to face the Canadiens in an Original Six...

The future eventually may belong to the Tampa Bay Lightning, one of the NHL's youngest teams, just not next season. At least that's how several sports books see it, who unanimously projected the Blackhawks to repeat as Stanley Cup champions.
The...

During the bedlam on the United Center ice Monday night after the Blackhawks clinched their third Stanley Cup in six seasons, general manager Stan Bowman encountered Brandon Saad.That's restricted-free-agent-and-in-line-for-a-huge-contract...

If the Lightning didn't understand their role as props in the Blackhawks' coronation in Game 6, then Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Corey Crawford explained it to them. Here's the 5 Things blog scribbled in the blinding afterglow of a modern-day dynasty:...

Sometimes Patrick Kane spots the spotlight. Sometimes the spotlight spots Patrick Kane.
Somehow, the two eluded each other for the first five games of the Stanley Cup Final against the Lightning, during which Kane had no goals and one assist.
On...

As Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp pondered what Monday night might produce in a sports city waiting to exhale, a question caused him to reflect on the days he appreciates now more than ever — days that seem much further away than nearly a...

Duncan Keith made the play.
Duncan Keith always seems to make the play.
The Blackhawks’ best defenseman didn’t get a point for his efforts in Game 4, but he made the play that led to Jonathan Toews’ finally scoring in the Stanley Cup Final.
Toews...

All Brandon Saad remembered seeing was an opening to the net.
But it opened enough space to let the Blackhawks back in the series.
All Saad recalled hoping to do was create "chaos." Yet in doing so, he restored order in a hockey city.
"I...

The Blackhawks' anthem may be loudest and their victory parades epic, but Chicago, one ranking shows, is not the fan friendliest in the league.
The city ranked ninth in a recent WalletHub analysis of the "Best and Worst Cities for Hockey Fans."...